“Silence is something that exists within oneself. For me silence is an internal music. It is necessary in order to find oneself and to find peace.” Marcel Marceau. Born in Strasbourg, France, he entered into eternal silence at the age of 87 on the 22nd of September 2007.
Oscar Domínguez
Pantomime was handed down by the Greeks, who not only gave us Demosthenes, who chewed stones in order to be able to speak fluently, among other great orators. But also taught Demosthenes and Plato the art of silence and gesture.
Marceau visited Colombia with his art many times: in 1957, 1989 and 2005, when he again announced his definitive retirement from the “madding crowd” of silence.
The last time he was represented by the company “Mr.et Mme.O” in the Colón Theatre and in a studio of Gesture Theatre (Delia Zapata Theatre), convened at the request of the French Embassy. I did everything I could to be able to see him.
The mime is the impersonator par excellence. The carbon paper to reality. Marceau is silence when it is more eloquent than words. With his gestures he quietly commented on the attributes of mankind.
Marceau considered that “Silence is something that exists within oneself. For me silence is an internal music. It is necessary in order to find oneself and to find peace.”
As the “greatest contemporary mime artist” he wasn’t styled by mimes when he was a child, he dedicated himself to them.
He should hold a world record that is not recognised by Guiness, as the man who has spoke the most without falling into the ordinary temptation of pronouncing words. Our politicians should take an intensive course in Marceau.
After following him on stage you could ask: “What is language for?” You feel like pawning language. Or preparing it “alcaparrada”.
If the Pope is the representative of God, Marceau is the father of Bip, his unforgettable character, the Pope of mime artists. He himself is a school of thought because he has the suspicion that, apart from his fellow citizens from the French Academy,all of us are mortal. So death happens once and is final, as is usually said by those who are still alive.
You don’t have to be either a pure or impure intellectual in order to enjoy it. Anyone can understand it. It is just about watching with eyes of amazement. Everyone talks about the show, how he does it and how they enjoyed Marceau’s talent.
Children relish in it. At the end of the day a mime artist is a magician through his gestures. This is known by the “crazy little ones” who are the owners of imagination.
Adults use half their brain trying to translate what the magic Marceau wants to say, or they applaud to fill the gaps that are often produced in this surprising Pierrot profession.
The morning, matinee, evening and night of pantomime shows this man who moulds silence with his hands, as if it were made of clay.
If you want to enjoy the best of aesthetic pleasures, let him massage the heart and soul with gestures ranging from a “certaine sourire” (certain smile) to it’s opposite, the tear. It is said that in his trade he reflects what is happening at every minute in the global village. Pantomime is the true Esperanto: we feel it when we are in a foreign country, we become mimes to ask for a plate of food with our appetite, gestures, hunger or simply our fingers.
At that moment we are a brief reincarnation of M.Marceau. Fortunately the artist does not know that we are ruining his universal art through which the invisible becomes visible and vice versa.
His white face shoots metaphors from every pore. He is not a man. He looks like a manifestation of everything he performs.
Suddenly he makes use of music, usually by Mozart, his favourite. Or a stream of light that helps him disappear. Or reappear, in the way of magician David Copperfield, whom confessed to copying his art.
When Copperfield, BIP- as VIP- goes, it is the mime Chaplin- his first great influence- that shows. Or Buster Keaton, another of his gurus. Or Étienne Decroux who he credits as his greatest teacher “because you can’t practice an art without having had a teacher”. Marceau globalised the art of silence. “I think that life is a message. In everything that we do we are showing what is done in the world”, he said in an interview about another “definitive” announcement about his retirement. He has said that he “hangs up” gesture much like these nostalgic bullfighters that generally return to the ring. Let’s hope the same goes for M. Marcel. And that there is peace over his eternal silence. PL
(Translated by: Rachel Sharp) – Photos: Pixabay
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